Groups opposed to the transfer of female inmates from the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury to faraway prisons said Monday that they believe federal authorities are taking advantage of the partial government shutdown to begin the transfers despite public outcry.

Activists are planning to meet at the federal courthouse in New Haven on Tuesday to speak out against the transfers that they say are already happening.

In a news release Monday, the group said that an anonymous source within the prison had told them that about 30 inmates were improperly transferred last week.

"We were supposed to have a Senate hearing on this at the end of October, but now that the government is shut down, BOP thinks that they can do whatever they want," Barbara Fair, an activist with My Brother's Keeper said in the release.

No one at the Bureau of Prisons Northeast Regional Office in Philadelphia answered the phone when Hearst Connecticut Newspapers called to ask about the activists' allegations.

Federal prison authorities said in July that they were planning to transfer 1,100 female prisoners from Danbury to a facility in western Alabama to make space for more medium-security male prisoners.

The plan drew immediate backlash from the activists, newspaper editorial boards across Connecticut and senators from several northeastern states.

The Danbury facility is the only federal prison for women in the Northeast. Opponents of the transfers said that moving inmates hundreds of miles from their families would make it more difficult for them to rehabilitate and rejoin their communities after their release.

The Bureau of Prisons had planned to start the transfers in early October. But last week, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said the U.S. Department of Justice had told him the transfers would be put on hold because of the government shutdown.

In an interview Monday night with Hearst Connecticut Newspapers, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said he would fight to stop the inmate transfers, even if he has to call U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder directly.

"It will be so harmful to the women and their families -- especially their children -- and to society," said Blumenthal. "This policy is exactly the opposite of what smart prison policy should be."